Shubal Stearns

Shubal Stearns (28 January 1706-20 November 1771) was an American Baptist evangelist during the First Great Awakening.

Biography
Shubal Stearns was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1706, and he first heard George Whitefield speak in 1745, converting to his "New Lights" movement and becoming a preacher during the First Great Awakening. Like Whitefield, he preached the spearation of the faithful from the old Congregationalist church, and he rejected infant baptism. In 1754, he and some his followers moved south to the frontier town of Opequon, Virginia, and Stearns built a new church at Sandy Creek, Guilford County, North Carolina on 22 November 1755. The church quickly grew from 16 members to 606, and church members moved to other areas and started new churches. Stearns was famous as a fervent and charismatic preacher who inspired the most powerful emotions in his congregation, asking for his followers to be "born again" from within rather than continue seeing religion as an external force. He died in 1771.